AP Psych Unit 2

Concepts

mental groupings of symbols

Prototypes

Best example of items within a concepts

Schema

Organizational and Interpretations of our experiences

Assimilation

Fitting new experiences into old schemas

Accomidation

Changing an old schema or making a new schema to add a new concept

Executive function

higher level cognitive tasks

Divergent thinking

Using new and different ways to solve a problem (creativity)

Convergent thinking

Coming up with one best solution to a problem

Metacognition

Thinking about your thinking

Algorithms

A procedure that allows you to solve problems

Heuristics

General rule that usually helps find the answer

Availability Heuristic

Judgment based on how quickly you think of examples

Representative heuristic

Using a rule from what you expect (Stereotype)

Fixation

inability to see a new perspective

Functional fixedness

Only seeing objects for their intended purposes

Mental set

Solving problems the same way over and over

Framing

Wording effects our decisions

Gamblers Fallacy

The belief that random past events will influence future events

Sunk cost fallacy

Sticking with something something just because you have lost so much to it

Priming

Activating certain memories to increase the likelihood of an answer

Overconfidence

We believe our choices are right, even though they are not

Belief persistence

Clinging to a belief after you have already been proven wrong

Confirmation bias

Overvaluing examples that support out beliefs

Insight

Suddenly seeing an answer you have been stuck on

Intuition

When you feel the right answer

Flashbulb memory

remembering something exactly as it is (picture)

Episodic memories

Remembering specific episodes (and then... and then...) (autobiographical)

Semantic memories

General knowledge information

Procedural memories

Step by step procedures

Explicit memories

Easily described (through hippocampus)

Implicit memories

Not easily described memories (in cerebellum)

Prospective memories

What you intent to do in the future

Sensory memory

Memory that goes in and out quickly

Iconic sensory memory

Shot snapshot in memory

Echoic sensory memory

Brief imprint of sounds

Eidetic memory

Photographic memory

Short term memory

Paying attention to and rehearsing something (capacity of 7)

Long term memory

More rehearsal, must be retrieved (unlimited space)

Chunking

Breaking up info to process it easier

Interfearence

New information that comes though and replaces old information

Working memory

Short term memory that pulls from long term

Central executive loop

Chief of working memory

Phonological loop

Verbal and audio input into brain

Visuospacial Sketchpad

Visual input into brain

Long term potential (LTP)

Synapses get stronger each time they are used, making it easier to relearn things

Shallow processing

Things that are easy to forget

Deep processing

Things that are hard to forget, made with deeper connections

Structural processing

How something looks

Phonemic Processing

How something sounds

Semantic processing

What something means

Serial position effect

Order of information matters

Primacy effect

We remember what we hear first

Recency effect

We remember what we hear most recently (immediate recall)

Ecoding

translating information to be able to store it

Method of Loci

Measuring location in a timeline by putting weird things in

Spacing effect

Spacing out information works best for memorization

Storage

How information is kept in your brain

Macitence rehearsal

Repeating something over and over again until it is kept

Elaborate rehearsal

Relating information to something you know

Autobiographical memory

Information that relates to yourself is easier to store

Retrieval

Getting information back out and using it

Context dependent memories

Depends on a specific context to be accessed

State dependent memory

Relies on emotional or mental state to be accessed

Mood congruent

Relies on emotions to be accessed

Recognition

Identifying information that has already been encountered

Recall

Bringing something back to mind without a reminder

Relearning

Learning again what has been forgotten (Faster each time)

Decay

losing connections to memories

Inadequate retrieval

Inability to access or recall information from memory

tip of the tongue phenomenon

Not being able to recall familiar words, but recalling connections

Proactive interference

Old information disrupts new information

Retroactive Interference

New information disrupts old information

Source amnesia

Remembering a correct event but in the wrong context

Infantile amnesia

Not having episodic memories before the age of 3

Dementia

Brain deterioration, typically age related

Alzheimers

Deterioration of neurons that produce ACH

Amnesia

Severe memory loss

Organic amnesia

Coming from a physical cause

Inorganic Amnesia

Coming from a psychological cause (like a traumatic experience)

Repression

Mind pushes information away as a defense

Retrograde amnesia

Forgetting the past (Localized or general)

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new memories

Dissociative amnesia

Psychological trauma resulting in localized memory loss

Korsakoffs Syndrome

Amnesia related to alcoholism

Constructive memory retrieval

Pulling from memory files

Memory consolidation

Moving information into organized longterm databases

Reconsolidation

When retrieving a memory, we smooth out details and incorporate new ones

Misinformation effect

Post event information alters the original memory

Imagination inflation

We remember things that we only have imagined to be real

Intelligence

Mental quality that allows you to learn from experience

Savant syndrome

a person limited in mental ability has a specific skill

Spearman's theory

General (G) intelligence and Specific (S) intelligence

Gardeners theory

There are 8 different intelligences

Sternberg's theory

Analytical (book smart), Practical (street smart), Creative (Having fresh, new ideas)

Stanford-Binet

Earliest IQ test, pen and paper, very wordy (mental age/chronological ago x100)

Mental age

Age you compute in

Chronological age

Actual age

WAIS-R

Commonly used IQ test that uses different subtests to test different things

Standardized

Compared against a large group of people that matches who you are testing

Reliable

Consistent every time